Now this is a buzzkill. When Square Enix opened a new Theatrhythm Final Fantasy website a few days ago, we hoped for the best. I mean, we knew it was probably a port, but it also could have been some ultimate edition for the Vita or a hint that a sequel was in development. But, it’s not. It was just the herald of an overpriced iOS version of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. How do we know? Because it’s already available in the New Zealand iTunes Store and is headed to other regions imminently.
While Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is an incredibly awesome music game that I love and highly recommend, I strongly encourage you to avoid the iOS version like a a big white van with a “Puppyes inSidE come C” sign on it. All this app will do is break your heart. That’s because it’s a freemium game. Sure, you have a Quest Medley which offers a field and battle segment song mashup that’s always random, a song composition section and new party members that weren’t in the original game, but these come at a price.

See, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is free, but includes no songs and only a handful of characters to start. You kinda really absolutely need music to play it and extra characters to choose from are kind-of nice since each one has different abilities best suited to different kinds of songs. Square Enix is selling all of the songs separately. We only have the New Zealand version’s DLC prices at the moment, but here they are to give you an idea of what everything will cost. A single song is $1.29, or you can get a pack with three from a specific game for $4.19. Extra characters are $2.59 each in that region. There were 29 characters in the original game and we already know the iOS version adds more like Balthier (FFXII) and Hope (FFXIII).

All this means that the 3DS version of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is a much better investment. It’s normal price may be $29.99 now, but I know I’ve seen it on sale fairly often for $19.99. Save yourself the aggravation, get it on a cart and let that be it.